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Sunday, 11 September 2011

The last two days will go down in the history of the "Vuelta a España". Maybe not because of the great attacks or differences among the major riders, but because of the return of the race to the Basque Country after thirty-three years. The Vuelta hadn't passed through this area of Spain-one of the places where there are more fans of this sport, and where cycling is more supported in the whole country- since 1978 because of political problems, and it was welcomed back with the roads full of public cheering on the riders, showing that they deserved this race going through their land.

The race itself arrived to the Basque Country with a tight gap of thirteen seconds between Cobo(Geox-TMC) and Froome(Sky) , the first and the second rider in the overall classification. Attacks were necessary in order to decide who was the one dressing in red in Madrid. In fact, on Friday we could see the Sky cyclist testing Cobo in the “Vivero”, a second category mountain pass located only fifteen kilometers from the end of the stage in Bilbao. In spite of this, he couldn't get him apart, and the Geox cyclist kept his gap.

Tension among the major riders was also seen in the intermediate sprints, both because of the points classification-”Purito” Rodriguez and Bauke Mollema are still fighting hard for it- and the attempts of the Sky team for getting the bonus seconds. In fact, the anecdote of Saturday took place when Froome confused the 20-kilometers banner with the sprint one, jumping off from the bunch and sprinting on his own.

Finally, the race arrives today to Madrid, where this afternoon the last stage is taking place. The matter now is to see if it will be the typical triumphal ride for Cobo, or if Froome will fight for the victory until the end. We can't forget that there are still 32 bonus seconds that could turn the final results around.